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The women led the way for Monday’s UMD cross-country practice. (Photos by John Gilbert)

There were two primary topics of conversation at Brainerd International Raceway Sunday. One was the huge crowd that converged on the drag strip just north of Brainerd to watch the 42nd National Hot Rod Association dragraces on their annual gathering in the north woods, and second was the astonishing number of upsets that eliminated most of the favorites on the first couple rounds in the pro categories.

It was difficult to stay home from the event, which is one that I can say I had somewhat of a hand in getting started at BIR, but there also was an ulterior motive. Fox Sports carried the final day’s eliminations in the three pro categories live, and I wanted to see how they’d do. They did right well, streamlining the packaging to show race after race without the lulls you face when you are on the scene, enjoying the atmosphere and color — and sounds — of the event.

The upsets started early. The new breed of racers has taken over, flooding the brackets with new names, since the greatest old name, John Force, retired just a couple weeks ago after blowing an engine and crashing to destroy his car, leaving him hospitalized in critical condition, and very wisely deciding to retire from sitting in the cockpit of his 1,000-horsepower beast, which he has done so well. 

The second “old veteran” was our own Greg Anderson, a Duluthian who spent a decade as chief mechanic for Warren Johnson before getting his own Pro Stock racer and dominating the class for a decade.

Anderson was the No. 1 qualifier in Pro Stock, and had hopes of securing the No. 1 spot in season points if he could win at his home track. In the first round for the 16 fastest qualifiers, Anderson ran an impressive 6.603-second quarter-mile, hitting 208.301 miles per hour against No. 14 qualifier Jeg Coughlin, who ran a 6.518/204.94. But Coughlin has a quicker reaction time in anticipating the green light, and his resulting “hole shot” gave him the finish line victory by about 2 feet. 

So Anderson was done.

Eight of the top 10 qualifiers in Pro Stock, and Top Fuel, were beaten in the first two rounds, and seven of the top 10 Funny Cars also were knocked out. In most cases, hole-shots did the damage. 
When it was over, Justin Ashley won Top Fuel, covering the quarter-mile in 3.75 seconds at 329.34 mph to beat Shannon Langdon. 

A highlight of Top Fuel was when Swedish rookie Idea Zetterstrom upset No. 1 qualifier Steve Torrance with a 3.773/320.81 run in the first round. She had a solo run in the quarterfinals, but jumped the start, red-lighting in the semifinals against Langdon. But her startling early leave spooked Langdon so he, also, fouled. It took some deliberation before Langdon was allowed to advance to the final.

In Funny Car, Blake Alexander won with a 3.927/324.67 over Matt Hagan.

My connection with the start of drag-racing at Brainerd is that original Donnybrooke owner George Montgomery ran the facility with his family, and he didn’t like drag-racing, citing its primitive competition compared to the road racing sports cars he loved. 

I covered every event for the Minneapolis Tribune in those days, and my family got to be great friends with the Montgomery family. When things got lean at the track financially, I suggested to George that he had to raise big purses to lure top road races to the track, and the costs would drive him out of business. 

“If you put on a drag race,” I told him, “you can charge every driver to compete, give them a plastic trophy for winning their class, and make a ton.”

Finally, George gave in and gave it a try. It was a huge success, with all the bracket racers flocking to compete on the big stage, and then the NHRA meet coming with national clout. Things evolved from there, to the point where the road races have disappeared, and while George had to lose the track to bankruptcy, the big drag races are the only lifeblood at the track — which was bought out of bankruptcy by Minneapolis racer/businessman Jerry Hansen. 

Lots of great memories from those old days.

The big NHRA weekend was the perfect bridge between the Olympics, which just ended, and fall sports, led by the Vikings, and at UMD, which is just now gearing up for the start, flushed with optimism. 
The Vikings won their exhibition opener, but lost prize rookie quarterback J.J. McCarthy to meniscus surgery after he looked good in that game. But in exhibition Game 2, Nick Mullens threw a touchdown pass and looked solid in a 27-12 victory at Cleveland. 

Meanwhile, in Green Bay, the Packers reserves looked helpless against Denver as the Broncos thrashed them 27-2. Denver has my rookie pick for stardom, Bo Nix, who was 8-for-9 passing for 90 yards and touchdown drives on his only two drives.

Up at UMD, the volleyball team, almost always a top contender in the Northern Sun, was seeded fifth by the coaches. Coach Jim Boos has 13 returning players with eight seniors and has added a half-dozen promising newcomers. The Bulldogs open with a couple of small exhibition tournaments before coming home to face league and national power Concordia of St. Paul.

In cross country, UMD surprised a lot of followers by contending for league and national honors a year ago, and a solid crop of new runners have filled the whole team with optimism for a strong season. 

Franny Seidel, a fifth-year leader of the women’s CC team, emanated confidence. “If you love running,” she said, “that’s all the motivation you need.”

Senior Franny Seidel waits for her UMD cross-country teammates to join her at Malosky Stadium.

The same holds true for the soccer team, which is coming off a solid 6-7-6 season, and has bolstered a solid crop of returnees with a new crop of freshmen. One of the seniors, Braamlak Haugen, has progressed from her days playing for Marshall. She said, “It will be really good to see how we do this season, because we have 31 players on our roster.”

Coach Greg Cane said the team is pointing for the season openers, when they take on Northern Michigan on Sept. 5, and Michigan Tech two days later.

And, before we wave good-bye to the Duluth HarborMonsters for their 46-44 ArenaMania championship in Arena football, we need to add a footnote. As we watched the game unfold, the barrage of public address screaming became a constant irritant. My wife, Joan, nudged me to look at her Smart Watch — it had a warning that the noise level where we were sitting was at a “dangerous level.” There was undoubtedly a world record number of times the speakers blasted out “DEE-fence…DEE-fence…” Like every time the Iowa Woo got possession of the football. 

I must say that the play is exciting, but the sound level at the games is not acceptable.